A Pool of Beams and Rays
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, day six hundred and forty-one: Rachel and Quinn get together and gather up everything about the Sunshine Girls, for memory.


_Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 30th cycle. Now cycle 31!_

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><p><strong>Hear that little bird twitter!<strong> _Been thinking about doing this for a couple days, then this morning decided to just go for it. If you go there, find 'gleekathon' and there I'll be. There's also a video explaining everything... Yep... ;) Check it out!_

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><p><strong>"A Pool of Beams and Rays"<br>Rachel & Quinn, Judy  
><strong>**Sunshine Girls #31 (sequel to 'The Crescent Sun')  
>[Sunshine Girls C2 listing available through my profile] <strong>

It may have been Rachel's idea in the end, but she would freely admit that it had come out of something Quinn had told her.

One day, Quinn had found a small shoe box, wedged at the back of a file cabinet, along with her old report cards… It had to have been the box to some pair of shoes she had as a kid, judging from the size. It was squashed down, just a bit, but it had still protected its contents. As soon as she opened the box, even before she unfolded the sheets, she knew what they were.

"Maps of the world…" she spoke to herself, smiling. There were a few of them there, folded, worn. Unfolding the first, she felt her eyes water at the rush of memories. She could make out which of the two of them had drawn what on each of these so-called maps – for each place the Sunshine Girls spent any prolonged time, there was a map. Quinn's house, Rachel's house, school, the park… They didn't just show what the place looked like: there were hiding spots marked off, especially their 'headquarters,' marked with a gold star, and there were small drawings of the people that were tied to each place, parents, teachers, friends, and very importantly: enemies threatening the land.

She had called Rachel right away – it was Saturday, and she wasn't going to wait for Monday… Not that she'd bring these to McKinley. So Rachel had come over, and when she saw the maps her reaction was instantaneous, much like Quinn's.

"I can't wait to tell her about… all this…" Quinn had said with a smile, and Rachel knew who she meant by she – the baby, her daughter…

The next morning, Rachel had arrived, out of the blue, with a box in hand and a smile on her face Quinn now easily recognized as Rachel's idea face. It didn't take long for Quinn to be sold on that idea. The main item, the star of their afternoon, was a massive blank scrapbook.

"When we're done, you'll have everything you need to tell her all about us," Rachel smiled with pride.

"So will you, someday," Quinn smiled back, bringing a blink to Rachel's eyes.

"Right…" she hadn't even thought about it that way, that if she ever had children of her own, this would be for them, too. "Well, we should get started, then.

In the box, along with the scrapbook, Rachel had packed in everything she had that was even borderline Sunshine Girls related that could be slipped between two pages. Anything that couldn't fit they would leave in the box, but at least it was all in one place. So the next thing to do would be to gather up everything Quinn had to add in.

"But you should have these, too…" Quinn pointed out. Rachel smiled.

"You'll need them a lot sooner than I will. We'll figure out our… joint custody later," she insisted. "Now, come on."

"Right," Quinn led the way and they found everything she knew of. Quinn walked, retrieved… Rachel tagged behind with the box, received. Eventually this process drew Quinn's mother's attention.

"What are you two up to?" she asked, curious.

"We're making a scrapbook, about the Sunshine Girls, for…" Rachel nodded toward Quinn, indicating 'the baby.'

"Oh, that's a good idea," Judy smiled.

They had continued gathering everything, and finally they were ready to get started. At the dining room table, the contents were laid out for them to look at. "I think this needs to be on the first page," Quinn picked up the picture – the one that had restarted everything for them.

"Definitely," Rachel beamed. Quinn set it in, right in the middle. "Right… What next?"

Quinn looked to the spread of items and picked out the maps. They managed to fit right on the pages, which made things easier. So they continued, with more photos, drawings, everything. At one time Quinn excused herself, bathroom break, leaving Rachel continuing on her own when Judy arrived with a box of her own.

"I thought you might want this," she set it down on the table. "I'd forgotten where I'd put it, almost forgotten I had it, still had it, but when you two got to be friends again, I looked for it and… I was looking for the best time to give it to you…" As she explained, Rachel moved around the table to get to the box. When Judy stepped back, she opened it and… It was like finding the maps again, only more so…

A pair of tutus, one blue, one red… long blue gloves, red cape… a tiara, and tap shoes… The makings of Beams and Rays, the All-Mighty Sunshine Girls.

Rachel looked back to Judy, stunned. "The last time you came to play, years ago, you left them here… I never got around to giving them back," Judy smiled, putting a hand on her back.

"When I was little, and I would come here, I… You were the closest thing I had in my life to… a mother," Rachel revealed, and Judy was touched. "I hated that… losing her meant I had to lose that, too… lose you…" she frowned, recalling her sadness. Judy put her arms around her, and Rachel hugged back.

"I'm here, if you ever need me," she promised, and Rachel smiled. When Quinn returned, she found her mother sitting with Rachel, who showed Judy what they'd done so far. When Rachel saw her, she got up to go show her the costumes Judy had found, something like the holy grail for their memory box.

The afternoon wore on, and to everything they had laid on the table they found a place, either in the scrapbook or in the box. The whole experience was meant to be in hopes to preserve it all – show the baby, some day, but more than that it was an opportunity for them, to reconnect with their own past. Finding things again, maps, costumes… It was unlocking so many more memories they didn't know they had. They wanted to capture memories, and they had done it, beyond all their expectations.

When they were done, Rachel closed the scrapbook, looking at the cover, blank… This made her wonder. "Have you thought about names?" she turned to Quinn.

"Not a lot," she shrugged. "Nothing's come to mind so far and it's just so big, I… I want to make sure it's right, you know?"

"Well, when you know, we should write it on here," she looked to the cover. "And… any others who should come along…" she smiled, which got a laugh out of Quinn.

"I like that," she agreed. The scrapbook was placed in the box which found its place in the nursery closet, ready to be presented to its future occupant.

THE END

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><p><strong>AN: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.  
><strong>**In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are  
><strong>******always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!******


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